


No Talking in the Library

by Ahatmadeofcheese



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Danger, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Librarians, Libraries, Magic, Monsters, Not Canon Compliant, Violence, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 08:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahatmadeofcheese/pseuds/Ahatmadeofcheese
Summary: All’s well and good when you work mainly out of your own books. But with the OWLs coming up, the teachers have decided they need to supplement with knowledge from the library. Not a big issue, right? Wrong. Others simply borrow their friend’s hard-won reading material, or brave the study tables in large groups that scare off any opposition. However, Remus finds himself left out of any such arrangement and if he wants to keep up his grades, he’s going to have to make a trip to the cursed room soon.
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5
Collections: Fic In A Box





	No Talking in the Library

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fictionalfaerie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalfaerie/gifts).



> I read your letter and saw ‘strange world that doesn’t really make sense’. This came out. Hope you can enjoy it!

All’s well and good when you work mainly out of your own books. But with the OWLs coming up, the teachers have decided they need to supplement with knowledge from the library. Not a big issue, right? Wrong. Others simply borrow their friend’s hard-won reading material, or brave the study tables in large groups that scare off any opposition. However, Remus finds himself left out of any such arrangement and if he wants to keep up his grades, he’s going to have to make a trip to the cursed room soon. 

As he headed towards the library that fateful Saturday he got the feeling that he might not come out alive. Wands were permitted in the library, but what good’s a wand when you don’t know what you’re fighting? An insane flesh and bone warlock? A grindylow? A puffskein swelled to terrifying proportions? He pauses outside the open doors, staring into the murky depths.

The walls and floors are stone, like any other room in the castle, but they seem to stretch on forever. Shelf after shelf of magical information. He suspects an undetectable extension charm, though there’s not much of an opportunity to find out for sure. A thick green carpet covers the floor, with stains of unknown origins marring the pattern at regular intervals. Remus pauses at the door, straining to hear any sound at all. Only the faint rustle of parchment greets his ears, the scratch of a quill and the usual library sound of faint, moaning keens. Nothing to suggest the horrors that lie within. 

He takes a deep breath and runs through the supplies in his library bag one more time. A list of all the books he needs. Spello-tape. Quill. Parchment. Ink. Spare socks. Flask of water. Breath mint. Deep breath in, deep breath out. 

“Are you planning on going in there alone?” The loud voice startles him from his thoughts. It emanates from a tall, dark haired boy with a handsome face standing a few feet away. Remus crosses his arms over his chest. 

“What if I am?” The dark-haired boy raises an eyebrow.

“I can’t just let you walk in there _alone_. It’s against the Gryffindor code.” Remus snorts in spite of himself.

“The Gryffindor code? I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Now the boy looks offended. 

“Before you’re even allowed into the house you have to swear you’ll uphold our values. Bravery, Chivalry, and Honor.” He glares at Remus. “I’m here to complete the initiation. All fifth years have to complete a feat of immense difficulty before they are considered full members of the house. Don’t you Ravenclaws have something similar?”

“We have to solve a goddamn riddle, not put ourselves in mortal danger!” Remus glances back into the library. “You can follow me if it makes you happy. I’m going to grab my reference books as quickly as possible and then get out of there.” The dark-haired boy snatches his list of books, then starts laughing. Remus eyes him suspiciously. “What?”

“These are all located in the middle of the library! You’ll never make it out alive if you don’t bring an escort.” Remus snatches the list back angrily, but on the inside he’s trembling. The boy seems sincere enough, and it’s not like he’s been longing to go into the library alone.

“Fine. But before we meet our doom, don’t you think we should be properly introduced?” The dark-haired boy grins and sticks out his hand.

“Sirius Black, at your service.” Remus takes it.

“Remus Lupin.” A voice from down the corridor startles them both.

“Well isn’t this just droll?” A different dark-haired boy is walking down the corridor. His hair is a sharp contrast to Sirius’s, though, sticking up in every direction but straight. Round framed glasses sit on his nose. If Remus didn’t know better, he’d say the kid just jumped off a broomstick after a hard Quidditch match. “An inter-house alliance. This must be what the heads are always prattling on about.”

“Hey, if you want to go into the library alone, be my guest.” Sirius drops Remus’s hand. “It’s not an alliance, anyway, it’s a... temporary team-up so we can do what we need another person to do.” The Quidditch boy smirks.

“Sounds like an alliance to me! Room for a Hufflepuff?” The other boys exchange a look. The larger the group, the better the odds. That’s the mantra the prefects drill into your head on the first (and only) new-student library orientation. 

“Fine.” Remus says. They shake hands with the new member. “You have a name?” The boy grins and pushes his glasses up a little further.

“James Potter. And I already heard your names, so I think we’re good to go. Any bits of strategy to discuss?” They talk a bit about the best route through the library, but eventually decide to wing it. Turns out, these two have the same problem of friendlessness. 

“Right!” Sirius says finally, “Unless we want to wait around for a Slytherin to show up, we should probably get going.” The other two nod their assent and draw their wands. Slowly the group advance towards the doors of the library.

As soon as Remus crosses the threshold, the sounds of the castle cease to exist. The library sounds of before dissapear, leaving only an eerie silence, the breathing and footsteps of his companions, and, faintly in the distance, a near-imperceptible scratching. A quill, hopefully. A terrifying eldritch horror, pessimistically. The three boys stop just inside the door and look around for a moment. 

Long rows of shelves extend off into darkness. Straight ahead is a gap between two shelves that opens onto a different one. It would be very easy to get lost in here. The carpet beneath their feet is slightly dusty, as though even the house-elves hesitate to brave this space. The only light comes from an unidentifiable source high above. Remus takes a deep breath. 

“Let’s get what we came here for.” He walks straight forward confidently and the other two follow without a word. In his head, Remus runs through a list of everything he’s ever heard about the library. Traps, navigation... _librarians_. All of it sounds a whole lot easier from the other side of it. He’s not going to fool himself into complacency, though. Plenty of students have died in this room and he’s not ready to become one of them. They work their way further in, occasionally glancing at the volumes on the walls.

“I think we’re in the history section at the moment,” whispers James, sounding all too loud in the still air. His voice drops even further. “I might as well grab some books now so I don’t have to come back later.” They nod, and Remus gives the books a look as well. There’s nothing to say Binns won’t assign them homework tomorrow, and then he’ll be out of luck. As he pulls _A Study the Muggle’s on the Wizarding Economy_ from the shelf, a scream echoes through the air. Shoving it hastily back doesn’t stop it.

Sirius snaps to attention, looking down the row. He raises a hand for silence and James hastily stuffs his selection into his bag. Then, without warning, the Gryffindor races away towards the sound. Before Remus can react, James follows. With a loud sigh he shoves _A Study_ into his bag and sprints after them. 

Remus and his brave companions turn several corners and go down several aisles. With a jolt, he realizes that he has no idea where the exit is anymore. Luckily, that’s not something he spends a lot of time worrying about. Mainly because of the many-toothed demon that they’ve come upon.

The creature is roughly four feet tall and completely black. It seems to absorb all the light from the area around it, darkening the gloomy row even further. It’s hunched over in a humanoid shape, and its spine is knobby and sticks out from the back. But the worst part is its face. Large, disk-like white eyes the size of softballs dominate the face, along with a terrifying mouth crowded with teeth. It’s cowering over another student, unidentifiable under the mass of black sinew.

James and Remus have their wands drawn, pointed at the creature. It’s rearing back, turning to face them, arms small and splindly and tipped with terrifying claws. There are some mingled shouts and growls and two jets of red light hit the thing in the chest cavity. It screeches horribly and topples over. One of the horrible white disks in its face has gone out, oozing a thick, pea colored pus. Large tears appear in the carpet as it scrambles away, then up the shelves. Remus runs over to the student on the floor. 

The boy appears to be their age, with rather small eyes. He’s sustained some scratches and a nasty bite mark on one forearm, but doesn’t appear to be all that worse for the wear. The bite is bleeding. He eyes Remus warily at his approach. 

“It’s alright,” he says in a soothing tone, “we’re not going to hurt you. Why don’t you let me have a look at your arm?” Reluctantly he holds out the limb, which Remus examines. Muttering a quick incantation to clean it, he rummages through his bag. Knew these would come in handy! He pulls out one of his spare socks and presses it to the wound. The boy flinches back.

“Are you really putting a sock on there? Is it clean?” Remus places it back on his arm.

“It’s all we’ve got right now.” He looks up and down the row. “What were you doing in this far alone?” The boy looks down at the ground.

“I came in here with Avery. Said he’d keep an eye on me.” An almost bitter note creeps into his voice, a note Remus wouldn’t have thought the sniveling boy capable of. “Led me to the middle of the shelves and ran. Took my wand, my bag...” The other three boys exchange glances. Remus runs two loops of spello-tape over the sock.

“You can stick with us if you’d like.” The boy gives them an appraising look, then nods.

“I’m Peter, by the way.” he says as James helps him to his feet. Sirius grins at him.

“You wouldn’t happen to be a Slytherin, would you?” Peter eyes him suspiciously. 

“And what if I am?” Sirius laughs and claps him on the back, causing him to wince.

“We’ve got the set, then! I’m a Gryffindor, he’s a Ravenclaw, and he’s a Hufflepuff.” He drops his voice into a mock-up of the divination professor, Trelawney. “When the four houses come together, only one can leave!” This spooks Peter, but the other two laugh. Remus doesn’t blame him for not laughing. Getting mauled by a demon is more than likely to dampen someone’s humor.

“Let’s get going. The sooner we can get out of here, the better.” This seems to sober the others, and they gather themselves up before heading down the row. The deeper they get into the library, the stranger the place seems. It’s quiet, a sound only describable as the whisper of turning pages overtaking the air. The rows begin to grow darker. Twice more they hear screams, only to arrive and find nothing but a drying stain or a torn up section of carpet. 

While in the Transfiguration section, they hear a dragging noise from the next aisle over. Putting down their books and taking up their wands, they form a tight circle. The dragging noise grows fainter and fainter before disappearing entirely. Just as silently they pick up their books and move in the opposite direction. One can never be too careful.

The light continues to dim as they walk down the rows. A few hastily muttered “ _Lumos_ ”-es brighten it enough to read the titles by. Remus would’ve suggested going back by now if he had any idea which way ‘back’ was. Peter’s nerves appear to be getting worse by the second, and the other two boys’s smiles are fewer and diminished in strength. Something slithers over the carpet in the darkness in front of them and Peter screams. Sirius claps a hand over his mouth but it is far too late.

Strange, keening moans carry down the row. Loudly muffled footsteps thump along the carpet. The four boys look at each other. This can only mean one thing. A librarian. 

As the footsteps draw nearer, joined by the swish of a robe’s hem, Remus formulates a plan. Moving carefully and quietly to the ground, he begins to pull books off the bottom shelf and jam them at random into other places. Soon enough, the others catch on and begin to follow his lead. Just before the footsteps reach them, they slide onto the bottom shelves and extinguish their lights. 

Harsh breathing. A light slithering. Heavy footsteps. All draw nearer in the dark, closer and visceral. Remus can smell the foul odor of the creature’s breath and almost feel the hot air hitting his face. For a moment he’s worried that it’s found them, that the jig is up and it’s going to attack. But it doesn’t. The footsteps move slowly away and gradually the harsh breathing and soft moans fade. Remus lets out a sigh of relief. 

Then his blood runs cold. A rustling can be heard, along with the slithering noise only inches away from his left ear. At first he thinks the librarian has returned, though it must be several yards away by now. Then, something like a clammy piece of fabric drifts over his face. Remus reaches up a hand to brush it off, bewildered, only to have the fabric clamp down and begin to tighten itself over his other limbs.

He almost screams, tearing at the strange fabric. It doesn’t budge. The fabric creates a seal over his mouth and nose, effectively choking him. Rolling off the bottom shelf onto it doesn’t help, either. The two wrestle silently for a few moments, Remus struggling for breath and debating over whether or not to ask for help with a librarian so near. Finally, he lets out a muffled yelp. Something grabs onto the fabric over his mouth and yanks, hard. To Remus’s horror, it seems to have glued itself to his face somehow and his head moves with it.

Dimly, he hears a faint muttering of ‘Lumos’ and light flickers into his vision. Sirius the Gryffindor has him by the robes and is shaking him in an attempt to dislodge the strange fabric. Then he realizes what’s going on. He’s read about these things, and they’re even more horrible than he imagined.

“Le-iiii-olllddd!” He shouts as hard as he can, his head swimming from lack of oxygen, “Leee-iii-fuhhhld!” The panicked boy looks down at him.

“Leh-ie-fade... leh-ee-fold... Lethifold!” His voice rises steadily. “What do you do for a lethifold?” Remus knows, somewhere, but his memory seems to have shrunk to the size of this instant and this instant alone. A large figure is looming up behind Sirius, and he wants to warn him but can’t really do anything but another small wriggle in his continuing struggle against the strange and aggressive traveling cloak that really shouldn’t be in Great Britain.

Then he finds himself flung backwards down the row and crashing into a shelf. Sirius and James are racing towards him pursued by... something. Something awful. There are few words that his hypoxic brain can find to describe it other than ‘eyes’ and ‘talons’ and ‘run’. The good news is that upon impact, several large, heavy books land on his face. The lethifold lets go and Remus sucks in a massive, life-giving breath. The two boys pull him up and they run away, joined by the fabric that had only seconds previously been hell-bent on killing him. 

“Peter?” Remus manages to gasp out. They shake their heads, and he resolves to remember the quiet boy with the sock spello-taped to his arm. Being killed by that thing wouldn’t have been a good time, Remus reflects as the librarian roars behind them. 

Shelves splinter under the massive talons and books spill out onto the floor behind them, the fearsome creature lashing out as they pass. The rank scent of librarian causes Remus to gag, which isn’t a good thing at the moment due to the whole nearly suffocating, now running for his life thing. He doesn’t look where they’re going, merely focuses on keeping his legs pumping and his lungs breathing and allows the other boys to lead him on his way. 

They take several sharp, jackknife turns and double back twice, not daring to slow down even for an instant. Luckily for them, the librarian isn’t used to so much resistance. Their usual prey are students they sneak up on and pin against the shelves before they can cause any real trouble. Blocky, sinuous, topheavy bodies with spindly legs are not built for running. Also, this particular librarian always skips leg day. To the boy’s relief and the librarian’s dismay, they soon find themselves safe and on the other side of the library, the creature’s panting moans echoing from far away. All three boys tumble to the ground, the lethifold curling up into a small pile on the floor. 

“Did... did the librarian... get him?” Remus pants. James nods, pulling a flask of water from his library bag. He drinks deeply then passes it around, even dribbling a little onto the killer-cloak by their feet. It perks up a little, forming into an object roughly the size and shape of a large tortoise. It’s hard to tell, but he thinks that it might be grateful.

“I could hear him screaming. If it came after us, it must’ve finished him off.” They sit there for a moment, the loss heavy on their minds. It’s strange; Remus couldn’t have picked Peter out of a crowd before today, or any of the other boys for that matter. But now, as he shares a drink with the two survivors and his would-be murderer, he feels as if he’s known them for years. Maybe the library does that to people. 

“I think we should leave now.” Sirius says gravely, pushing his way to his feet, “We’ve been in here for hours and they lock the doors at night. I don’t want to get trapped in here with the likes of that thing.” He gestures vaguely at the lethifold, which draws itself up stiffly. He glares at it. “You can leave any time, you know. You tried to kill Remus.” If pieces of darkly colored fabric could look offended, this one would’ve. It slithers off down the row and out of sight.

“You’ve got no argument from me.” Remus pauses to look around the rows. “We can’t be too far from the entrance right now, it’s gotten light again.” The other two boys nod. James puts on the ghost of a grin.

“I was supposed to be researching a Defense Against the Dark Arts paper. Now I’ve got plenty of material to work with.” The other two force heartless laughs and then they’re off, down the row, no longer heading towards strange screams or weird sloshing nosies. Row after row passes in silence, each feeling identical and yet different.

After about two hours of searching, they come to the conclusion that they’re lost. Very lost, in fact. Eventually Remus comes to a halt with a sigh.

“We can’t go on like this. We have no idea where we’re going!” Sirius looks at him and frowns.

“You got any better ideas? How about we as a librarian for help?” James steps forward and holds up his hands.

“Calm down. There’s enough trying to kill us in here without adding each other to the list.” He looks at Sirius pointedly. “And he’s right, you know. There’s no way we’re going to find our way out without some direction.” An idea sparks in Remus’s brain. 

“I can climb to the top of the shelves! Then I’ll figure out a way to the nearest wall and we can pick our way around the edges of this dungeon.” Sirius looks at him.

“Climb the bookshelves? You?” Remus shrugs and heads to one of the shelves. Sliding his fingers in above a copy of _The Social Habits of the 21st Century Muggle_ , he hauls himself up. The shelves creak and groan, but hold. Up another shelf. Then another. A third. It’s slow going; there must be at least fifteen shelves to each bookcase and probably more. The books also make poor hand and footholds, often pulling out of the shelves a little. Still, he climbs. 

Just when he thinks he can’t go another shelf, his fingers sink through air and latch onto the top of the shelf. It’s covered in dust and cobwebs, but Remus would be glad to sink his fingers into an acromantula nest at this point. He hauls himself up and sits there for a moment, panting. Then he stands up and looks around the room.

The library is far, far larger than it appears from the outside. The shelves stretch out in endless rows, ending at far away walls. Luckily, the closest wall is only five or six rows away. He maps out a route mentally and prepares himself for the climb back down. 

“Wait!” Sirius calls, “I want to try something. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ” Remus suddenly finds himself lifted into the air. He flails his arms and legs, trying to touch _something_ , anything solid. 

“Put me down! Put me down!” Slowly and gently he drifts to the floor, collapsing in a panting heap on the manky-looking carpet. He looks up at Sirius with a glare. “You couldn’t have warned me _before_ you lifted me into the air?” Sirius grins.

“Now where would be the fun in that?” Remus rolls his eyes.

“Come on. The wall’s that way.” And they walk. March. Stagger. Perambulate. It’s not anything worth noting, because the monotony of the shelves is only punctuated twelve minutes later when they run aground into a wall. The other two boys look at Remus, who shrugs. “I don’t know which way would be shorter.” Randomly, they decide to pick left because all the thinking power necessary to make an informed decision got used up on fear about three hours ago. Vaguely, Remus wonders just how long they’ve been in this place.

Eventually, they reach a corner. This heartens them; even if they took the long way around it’s only two more walls to search for an exit. And it’s lighter now, the dark shadows of the inner rows banished by the light from the ceiling. Perhaps that’s why none of them hear it coming. But when James feels something grab onto his arm, he screams loud enough to alert the whole library.

At first Remus thinks another librarian has found them and snuck up, unnoticed. But the air is suspiciously quiet, and though he didn’t get a great look at the thing in the darkness, it was most definitely not large, white, and furry. Actually, it might’ve been a little furry. But it was, most certainly, not a polar bear. At least, he thinks this is a polar bear. He’s never seen one in real life, and it’s got to be far larger than the bears are normally, but it’s definitely a polar bear.

For those of you unfamiliar with the bear attack rhyme, it goes ‘If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, goodnight.’ Naturally, we should be more than a little concerned for our heros.

Sirius leaps into action. He pulls up his wand and shouts ‘ _Stupefy_!’ The creature snorts, red jet of light bouncing off its pelt. It’s on two legs, and it lifts James by the back of his robes. Clearly, it’s not a normal polar bear. 

“Run! I’ll keep him occupied!” James shouts, dangling three feet from the floor. 

“Don’t be stupid. That thing could gut you like a fish and then catch up with us!” 

Remus and Sirius look up at the bear and consider the prospect of their close friend being disembowled right in front of them. When all hope seems lost, something dark and thin leaps from the top of the bookshelf and lands on the bear, wrapping around its snout. The beast growls and drops James, clawing at the thing. A second attacker drops from the shelf, then another. Soon the bear disappears under a pile of black fabric.

Remus can’t see what happens after that, but eventually the cloths move out of the way and there’s not a bear under them. One glides over and sits at his feet, lookin up at him.

“Hey!” he cries, “It’s the lethifold that tried to kill me!” James prods one of the cloaks.

“Looks like it brought some friends.” Remus grins at the lethifold, which he can differentiate from the others by a bit of golden braid running along one side. “You don’t suppose he’s their leader?” The lethifold curls itself up into a proud spire. A voice from behind startles them all.

“He’s their leader, and I’m their translator.” The three boys turn and stare in awe at the blood smudged face of Peter Pettigrew, wearing what appears to be part of a librarian’s robe.

“You’re alive!” shouts James. The Slytherin grins. Gone is the self-conscious curl of his shoulders, the wincing at the continual moans pervading the space. The boy standing before them is confident and strong, carrying a large dictionary that’s smeared with a similar amount of gore.

“I am. And, best of all, I can get you guys out of here!” That’s the best news Remus has heard all day. He looks around, as if expecting to see some grand machine that will carry them away.

“How?” In answer, Peter makes a strange sound that can only be described as ‘clothes folding’ and the fold (ha ha) of lethifolds jump to action. Each of them grab one leg of each boy, then, with the golden braid lethifold wrapped around Peter’s shoulders leading the way, they start down a strange path between, over, and sometimes, it seems, underneath, until they’re nearing a very familiar archway in the wall of the great room. The cloaks deposit the four boys there and retreat a respectful distance, except for their leader.

“Ready to go back to your dorms?” Remus frowns.

“I’m going to miss you guys.” Sirius nods.

“Me too. And the library; between first hand experience and Peter’s lethifolds, we probably know more about it than the entire school.” Remus leans against the wall. Suddenly, a roguish grin crosses James’s features.

“I have an idea.” He looks to each of them in turn. “What’s the one thing that would’ve been more useful in there than anything else? A map.” Sirius quirks an eyebrow.

“What are you suggesting?” James’s grin spreads even wider.

“How’d you boys like to become Hogwarts’s first cartographers?”

* * *

A shiver of excitement swept through the air as the mapmaker’s club gathered in their small bolt-hole at the center of the library. Cushions were spread across the floor, all manner of coat-hooks sprouted from one wall. In the center, around a large, oak table, were the four boys who were the only members. The dark haired boy grinned at his companion across the table.  
“Go on, Remus. Let’s see.” The Ravenclaw gave him an equally fierce smile.  
“Catalogued the last one Thursday. Named her Snape.” The small-eyed boy chortled with good humor. The boy with round-rimmed glasses rolled his eyes.   
“Out with it, Loony. No more teasing.” With a flourish, the roll of parchment unfurled across the table.

_Messrs. Loony, Coat-Closet, Jack-ass and Puff Proudly Present_

**A Student’s Guide to the Library**

**Author's Note:**

> My favorite part of WTNV is the killer librarians. They heavily influenced this work, as you can probably tell.


End file.
